Sapriya McLendon, a 2024 graduate of the U.S. Army War College, joins host Tom Spahr in the virtual studio to discuss her command of the 513th Military Intelligence Brigade (Theater) (MIB-T). The 513th MIB-T plays a critical role in providing the ground intelligence picture for CENTCOM, a task they’ve honed over two decades of continuous engagement in the Middle East. Their conversation delves into the unique aspects of the 513th MIB-T, including its data-centric organization and innovative use of data to enhance efficiency in both business operations and warfighting tasks.
I’m going to change the term from data-centric to AI-ready…It is not our focus on data, it’s our understanding and appreciation that because there is so much data, we have to build these AI enabled tools to bring and process all that data to improve our analyst’s workflow
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Sapriya McLendon is a colonel and a career active-duty Army Military Intelligence Officer in command of the 513th Military Intelligence Brigade at Fort Gordon, GA. She leads a team of Soldiers and Civilians that provide tailored multi-discipline intelligence support to Army Central Command and CENTCOM aligned organizations. She is a proud mother, wife, and Baltimore Ravens fan.
Thomas W. Spahr is the DeSerio Chair of Theater and Strategic Intelligence at the U.S. Army War College. He is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army and holds a Ph.D. in History from The Ohio State University. He teaches courses at the Army War College on Military Campaigning and Intelligence.
The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Army, or Department of Defense.
Photo Description: The 513th Military Intelligence Brigade is nicknamed “The Knights” and they’ve used AI to generate artwork representing their mission.
Photo Credit: Image generated by AI and provided by Sapriya McLendon
If — for the purposes of my comment here — we were to consider CENTCOM’s mission, in their AO, to be at least somewhat (or exactly?) similar to the “modernizing”/the FID missions described in the section of Joint Publication 3-22 that I provide below:
“a. An IDAD (Internal Defense and Development) program integrates security force and civilian actions into a coherent, comprehensive effort. Security force actions provide a level of internal security that permits and supports growth through balanced development. This development requires change to meet the needs of vulnerable groups of people. This change may, in turn, promote unrest in the society. The strategy, therefore, includes measures to maintain conditions under which orderly development can take place.” (Item in parenthesis above is mine. See JP 3-22 Foreign Internal Defense; therein, see Chapter II, Internal Defense and Development Program, and Paragraph 2, Construct.)
Then:
a. From that exact such and specific “modernizing”/FID mission perspective — and its described “normal” and consistent challenges —
b. Is our AI effort — in CENTCOM — now and for the future — most optimally configured and “run” — and most optimally evaluated, updated and improved upon?
Note that, from the “then” question that I propose above, our “AI-Ready Defense: Military Intelligence in CENTCOM,” this would seem to require that:
a. Our AI be developed, deployed, evaluated, improved upon, etc.; this from the specific perspective of “providing a level of internal (and external, if SFA is required?) security that permits and supports growth through balanced development,” Herein, understanding that:
a. “Development requires change to meet the needs of vulnerable groups of people,” and that
b. “This change may” (and, indeed, in many/most cases will/does?) “promote unrest in the society.”
Therefore, with specific attention to and consideration of the “modernizing”/the “development” mission described above — and, accordingly, in full acceptance of and understanding of the normal, consistent and routine challenges related to thereto (see my “a” and “b” immediately above):
a. Our “AI-Ready Defense” in CENTCOM (and elsewhere in many places throughout the world also?),
b. This must be organized, ordered, developed, deployed (and especially periodically evaluated and improved upon?); this, so as to “maintain conditions under which modernization/orderly development of nations in the AO can take place?”